The Irish people since their conversion to Christianity have
possessed a particularly strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Marya
devotion they received from St. Patrick. Through many centuries of
persecution the Mother of Gods intercession has assisted and comforted
the Catholic people of Ireland. The Irish suffered greatly for the one,
true Catholic Faith, but in the 19th century they encountered especially
bleak times.

True, in 1829 the Catholic Emancipation Act officially ended
persecution against Catholics, but persecution against Catholics in
Ireland persisted. In the 19th century, Ireland experienced potato crop
failures several times, including the great potato famine, along with a
deadly epidemic of typhoid fever. While the Irish and their children
were starving, Catholics were bribed with the promise of food or money
if they would apostatize from the ancient faith. With great heroism,
most of the Irish Catholics kept the faith. Mary Immaculate, Cause of
our Hope, helped to sustain the persecuted Church in Ireland.

On the rainy evening of August 21, 1879 in the west of Ireland, in
Cnoc Mhuire (Knock in English), located in County Mayo, a tremendous
prodigy occurred. Several people noticed that a bright light shone over
the church of St. John the Baptist and that three figures appeared near
the south gable of the church. Fourteen witnesses from six-year-old John
Curry to seventy-five-year-old Bridget Trench, saw the apparition.
Another person observed the bright light over the church from half a
mile away, but did not come to the church to investigate the light.

Whom did the witnesses see? They saw the Blessed Virgin Mary wearing
white garments and a brilliant golden crown with a rose under the crown
on the forehead. She was prayerfully raising her hands and eyes to
heaven. St. Joseph was at Marys right with his head respectively
inclined toward Mary. St. John the Evangelist was to the left of Mary,
vested as a bishop, his left hand holding an open book and his right
hand raised as in preaching. To the left of St. John, a cross and a lamb
were on top of an altar.

The figures were bathed in light and stood about two feet above the
ground. They sometimes receded toward the gable and would then come back
again.

The witnesses watched the apparition in the pouring rain for
approximately two hours while reciting the Rosary. Though it continued
to rain heavily all during this time, no rain fell towards the gable, on
the figures, or on the ground beneath the figures.

Shortly after the apparition occurred at Knock, both pilgrimages and
miracles began. Ten days after the apparition, a small girl received the
cure of a painful ear condition that had left her deaf, when her parents
made a pilgrimage to Knock with her. In 1979 (the centennial year of the
apparition), His Holiness John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the Shrine
of Our Lady of Knock.

There are at least two unusual features of the apparition at Knock. Our
Lady, St. Joseph and St. John kept silent. Mary delivered no verbal
message: no reproof, no warning, no request, nor even a word of comfort.
But her silence spoke eloquently enough. Mary stood in silent solidarity
with the greatly oppressed and suffering Irish people. Further, the
celestial figures silence in the presence of the Eucharistic Lamb
indicates the kind of reverence that the faithful should render the
Eucharistic Lord. The other distinctive feature of this apparition is
that so many people, and of all ages, witnessed it.

Mary appeared at Knock on the vigil of the feast of her Immaculate
Heart to remind the Irish that they were close to her Heart and to
encourage them to persevere in the faith.

She came as the Queen of Heaven and Ireland to remind the faithful of
the grace and hope which comes from her Son and the perpetual Sacrifice
of the Mass.

Our Lady of Knock came with St. Joseph and St. John to teach all of
the faithful the importance of reverential prayer and of sacrifice,
especially when united to the Eucharistic Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus
Christ.

Our Lady of Knock, Queen of Ireland, you gave hope to our
people in a time of distress and comforted them in sorrow. You
have inspired countless pilgrims to pray with confidence to your
divine Son, remembering His promise: "Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and you shall find". Help me to remember that we are all
pilgrims on the road to heaven. Fill me with love and concern
for my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those who live
with me. Comfort me when I am sick or lonely or depressed. Teach
me how to take part ever more reverently in the holy Mass. Pray
for me now, and at the hour of my death.
Amen.